Hong Kong police put ‘bounty’ on Australia-based activists

Two high-profile Australians have been accused of breaking a new sweeping national security law imposed by Beijing.

Hong Kong police have put $HK1 million ($191,800) bounty on Melbourne-based lawyer Kevin Yam and Ted Hui, a former Hong Kong politician who now lives in Adelaide, accusing them of breaking a sweeping national security law imposed by Beijing.

The Hong Kong police force announced that eight people, ­including the Australian pair, were being accused of breaking the law, which critics have labelled unprecedented.

All eight are alleged to have colluded with foreign forces to endanger national security – an offence that carries a sentence of up to life in prison under a sweeping security law.

Three years after the imposition of the National Security Law, Australia remains deeply concerned by the erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy.

We urge the Chinese government to uphold the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Basic Law and Sino-British Joint Declaration.

— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) June 30, 2023

Some have also been accused of subversion, incitement to subversion and secession.

“They have committed very serious offences that endanger national security,” said Steven Li, chief superintendent of the national security department.

“They advocated for sanctions to damage Hong Kong’s interests and intimidate Hong Kong’s officials with some targeting specifically some judges and prosecutors,” Mr Li said.

He added that police cannot arrest the eight if they remain overseas.

“But we will not stop (chasing them),” he said.

Mr Yam is an Australian citizen and cricket tragic, who was raised in Melbourne before working as a commercial lawyer in Hong Kong for two decades.

He told The Australian the Hong Kong ­government was trying to underscore the “extraterritorial” threat of the security law.

Mr Yam said his phone had been running “non-stop” with congratulations messages.

“It says a lot about how far Hong Kong has fallen that ­people think that having a ­national security arrest warrant is a badge of honour,” he said.

“I derive no joy from all the congratulations. I just feel sad for Hong Kong,” he said.

Mr Hui, who is in exile in Australia, said the bounty was “ridiculous and hilarious” but would add to the weight of China’s persecution against the Hong Kong diaspora.

People cross a road in Central, a financial hub in Hong Kong on July 3, 2023. Picture: AFP

“It even makes it clearer to the western democracies that China is going towards a more extreme authoritarian (direction) and (is posing) more of a threat to the world,” Mr Hui told AFP in a written response.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who met Mr Hui and Mr Yam in her government offices in Adelaide in January, said the Australian government was “deeply disappointed” by the news of the arrest warrants.

“We have consistently expressed concerns about the broad application of the National Security Law to arrest or pressure pro-democracy figures and civil society,” Senator Wong told The Australian.

‘Ridiculous’

The national security law – which has reshaped Hong Kong society and busted down the legal firewall that once existed between the special autonomous region and the mainland – has the power to hold accused people across the world accountable.

Under the law, security cases are handled by designated police officers, prosecutors and judges in Hong Kong, and Beijing can take over certain cases to try them in the mainland’s opaque, Communist Party-controlled justice system.

The announcement of the wanted list came two days after the city celebrated the 26th anniversary of its handover from Britain to China.

Hong Kong police have accused Ted Hui (left) and Kevin Yam of collusion.

It was also the third anniversary of the promulgation of the national security law.

In Hong Kong, 260 people have been arrested under the law, with more than 160 individuals and five companies charged. The bulk of the accused are prominent pro-democracy politicians, activists, unionists and journalists.

In London, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly warned China: “We will not tolerate any attempts by China to intimidate and silence individuals in the UK and overseas.

“The UK will always defend the universal right to freedom of expression and stand up for those who are targeted.”

The UK has been vocal in condemning China over what it sees as the erosion of rights and civil liberties in its former colony.

In 2020, it suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong in protest at Beijing’s introduction of the national security law in the territory.

It was one of 10 countries, including the United States, Australia and Canada, to suspend mutual legal assistance in criminal matters with Hong Kong.